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YouTube University!

You have a lot to learn from YouTube. Sure, you may think of YouTube when you think of teens whose music videos went viral, making stars out of Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black. You may also think of YouTube when you think of cute kitten videos or stupid stunts gone horribly wrong. But you should also think of YouTube when you want to learn a new skill or how to repair something. I’m not saying YouTube will replace a college education, but YouTube is a treasure trove of helpful videos that can show you how to perform a task in ways that text can’t.

Have you ever wondered how to do Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk? Here’s a video explaining how in a few easy steps!

Have a hankering for chocolate covered strawberries? This video shows how easy they are to make!

Yum!

How about learning to play the guitar? A friend of mine told me her son learned to play the guitar by watching YouTube. Another friend told me she learned to knit by watching YouTube. I’ve turned to YouTube for instructions on how to replace a memory card in a laptop and how to replace a battery in a Kindle. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video on YouTube must be worth a million!

Here is a great link you should add to your Bookmarks with a helpful list of How To videos on YouTube: What You Can Learn on YouTube. Maybe you will never need to know how to deliver a baby in an emergency or how to care for a pet shark, but now you will know where to turn in case you ever need that knowledge in a hurry.

YouTube is also a great source for watching full length tv shows and renting movies. Not sure which movie to rent? Search YouTube for movie trailers to help you decide.

YouTube is increasingly being used as a marketing tool for companies hoping that their videos will go viral (a viral video is a video that is shared rapidly and widely with others, not a video that contains a virus). Old Spice YouTube videos are a recent example of an effective marketing campaign using YouTube videos. Wonder of Tech readers also know about the recent YouTube viral video that was actually a marketing tool for the movie Limitless (see, Tech-Knowledgy: Your Questions Answered! 3-25-11).

One of the many great things about YouTube is that you can watch it from almost any device. YouTube is accessible on your computer, on mobile devices such as smartphones and the iPad, and on your tv through AppleTV, some Internet enabled DVD players, and Wii and PlayStation 3 video gaming consoles. Most of the videos in Wonder of Tech blog posts are from YouTube so you can watch them from your computer or on your mobile device when you’re out and about.

Perhaps you want to upload your own videos to YouTube. You may want to be the next Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black, or Numa Numa dancer. Upload your soon-to-be-viral video to YouTube for the world to see. Or maybe you want to share a video of your baby’s first steps with only friends and family by uploading a video on YouTube that’s password protected to restrict viewers. Go for it!

YouTube accounts are easy to get and free. You need to sign up through your Google account, which is also easy and free to obtain, and then you’re all set. You can then upload videos, subscribe to channels, rent movies, save favorites and add comments. Try subscribing to a channel to be notified by email when that channel uploads a new video to YouTube. If you find a channel whose videos make you laugh or teach you a skill at the pace and with the clarity that works for you, definitely subscribe!

So check out YouTube and see what you can learn today! Have you ever learned a skill using YouTube? Let us know in the Comment section below!
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Congratulations to Jordan and Jessica, the newly engaged couple, who are making news thanks to Jordan’s unusual marriage proposal. Taking advantage of Apple’s free engraving service for the iPad 2, Jordan proposed to Jessica by handing her an iPad 2 with the words, “Will you marry me?” engraved on the back of the device. Her response? “Yes, now give me my iPad!” Read the full story at 9to5 Mac. I’m thinking the resale value of this iPad might not be enhanced by the engraving, but best wishes to the happy couple!

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Comments

Rebecca Black is a 13 year old girl whose song “Friday” was posted on YouTube on February 10 and has had over 64 million hits on YouTube. Here is the link to her viral video: Friday. This song can be helpful for those who are confused about the order of the days of the week. At least some of them.

For all the Angry Birds loving Android fans, Amazon is not only offering Angry Birds Rio for free at the Amazon App Store, today only Angry Birds Seasons is free too! Check out this link: Angry Birds Seasons

I love Rebecca Black. She is my inspiration! No, not really but I do love youtube! You know what else I love? That website link you posted with the list of “How To’s”. It was so helpful! It has everything you could possibly need. I am trying to learn how to do a back-flip right now using one of the links. 😀 Not only are they useful but they are also hilarious, like the video “How to solder a copper pipe”. I sure hope I won’t need to be using that anytime soon but you never know 🙂

Hi Andrea, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so happy you found this blog post helpful. Let us know how the installation of your sink goes. I find it very helpful to watch the videos when I’m trying to learn something as I can rewind and watch them over and over again until I “get it.” Best of luck with your new sink!

Hi Mojo, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I would be happy to provide more information about signing up for a YouTube account. Go to YouTube and click on the big blue button that says “Create Account”. You can sign up with any email address you have and choose a user name. After you enter all the required information and click “Accept”, you will be asked to set up a Google account if you didn’t use a Google email account (gmail or googlemail).

After you’ve signed up for a YouTube account, go to the Home page of YouTube and click on Browse. From there you will see videos in different categories. Or maybe you want to search for more How To videos. When you find a video you really like, you can click on the Subscribe button above the video. You can also Like or Dislike the videos which helps YouTube suggest other videos you might like. You can leave a comment or add the video to your favorites.

Have fun with YouTube, it can be a good source of information or a real time waster, whatever you want!

I wanted to read one of your posts that I can actually relate to. I’m SO not a techie kind of person. I know, I’m SO behind the times…

Who doesn’t watch videos on YouTube? Whenever I’m searching for a particular topic and want to learn, YouTube always comes to my rescue. I also do a lot of “How To” videos as well. Walking people through how to do something is SO helpful. I’ve actually learned how to take out a background in pictures with Adobe Photoshop through videos. I would have never figured this out on my own.

Enjoyed the post and I can see you’ve already got plenty of people talking about this subject. Awesome!